A Dog Under a Divine Moon
by scribbles-in-the-margins
Summary: [MABU] Hana finds herself on a mission with Izumo. She hates how people outside her clan treat her and her dogs, why should this one be any different?
1. Chapter 1

_Summary – Hana X Izumo, references to past tense Kotetsu X Izumo. Nothing explicit. The mission where a deceit was invented and a friendship was made._

_Rating – T although it probably doesn't even need that high of a rating._

_Hana finds herself on a mission with Izumo. She hates how people outside her clan treat her and her dogs, why should this one be any different._

_Who are these characters? Izumo is one of the chuunin proctors and also one of the chuunin assigned to help the 5th. He is one of the two that tried to trick everyone into thinking room 201 was room 301 before the beginning of the chuunin exam. Hana is Kiba's older sister. She has 3 dogs who do not have canon names as far as I know. She is a vet but since she is an Inuzuka it is reasonable to assume she is capable of missions as well._

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A dog under a divine moon – chapter 1

Hana was having a bad day. No, Hana was having a horrible day. First, her little brother was trying to drive her crazy by bouncing all over the house and if he even thought of using that 'dynamic marking' technique in here, she would have him down on his back and her teeth in his neck. Unfortunately, even Kiba wasn't enough to distract her mother at a time like this.

"Hana!" Tsume screamed from the kitchen. "You need to be back from your mission by next Saturday. The entire clan is having its meeting and you are expected to be there. Your cousins will be there."

Hana tried to slump further into the pile of grey fur she was hiding under on the couch, unfortunately, her three dogs were not able to hide her from her mother, "Yes, Mother." Hana knew what this meant. The only reason her mother paid any attention to those annoying cousins of hers was that Hana would be expected to start seriously dating. Actually, she had been expected to do that a while ago, now that Hana was nearly twenty-one her mother was stepping in.

Her cousins were annoying, they were worse than Kiba for being non-stop screaming idiots. Now sure, all of Hana's clan were like that to an extent, but Hana was quiet for an Inuzuka. That doesn't meant she was quiet, just compared to her boisterous clan, she was a bit more demure. She could go hours without the need to wrestle anyone into submission.

Finally, she gathered up her pack and made her way to the door of the house followed by three large grey dogs. She didn't often go on missions with others, her and her dogs were more or less their own team. After the attack by sound, shinobi had been in short supply she was stuck doing more missions and missions with people she didn't really know. Sure she knew the people she graduated with from the academy, but not many of them were still around. She was twenty now, the attack by sound had been two years ago. The village was getting used to being run by the fifth, but this constant switching of teams was getting annoying. Hana just wanted to be back to doing missions by herself.

With only a short wrestling match with her mother and promises of being back for the clan meeting, she was tackled by Kiba and Akumaru (who was getting rather big) before finally making it to the path leading away from her home. She was going to miss the smell of the dogs and her family. Heck, she'd even miss the smell of her brother – not enough that the thought of throwing him in a river wasn't tempting though.

Hana trotted to the village, she was to meet her team by the village's main gate in another half hour. When she trotted up, after a quick stop in the village for some yakatori for her pack, she saw a chuunin waiting. He nodded at her as he looked over. His dark hair was in it's usual place of over his face and his bandana style forehead protector was covering his head. Izumo was a face she often saw at the mission desk or when turning in paperwork for the village's veterinary practice. She hadn't been expecting to see the desk ninja that was half of the near infamous dynamic duo here though.

"Hana-san, Team got reduced to us." He grabbed his pack off the ground and slung it over his back.

Hana knew Izumo briefly, well everyone in the village seemed to know him a bit. Him and his partner in crime (who rumor had it was more of a partner in the most serious sense of the word) were well known for being troublemakers in their off hours. "What happened?"

"Ko got a nasty paper cut." He bent down to look at her dogs, "You guys have gotten big since I last saw you."

Now, Hana was always appreciative of someone paying attention to her dogs, "Not as big as my brother's dog is getting." She tilted her head, "How did a paper cut keep him out of a mission?"

Izumo got back to his feet, "Oh forbidden Jutsu scroll jumped off the shelf and attacked him. He wasn't paying attention as usual. I'm sure the five of us will be more than enough to handle this, we should get going though."

Hana nodded, she didn't want to think about what all was hidden in the Hokage's tower. It was nice to have her dogs considered part of the team by someone else though. She followed Izumo out of the village, her dogs trailing behind her. They were going to be traveling to rock country to do some information gathering. According to the mission briefing, Hana was supposed to mostly be backup incase something went wrong with the rest of the team being the ones gathering information. Her dogs were there for tracking purposes and incase things got physical. She didn't know yet how the reduction in the team was going to affect things.

It would be a two-day trip there so that meant one night under the stars. Hana didn't mind. She actually spent a lot of nights outside when it was too noisy in the house to sleep. For some reason it seemed all the dogs could be quiet as mice when out on a mission, but get seven or eight dogs into the house and between them and her brother, it was non-stop noise all night between snoring and snuffling and tossing and turning. They were still in Fire country so Hana didn't berate herself too seriously for letting her mind wander. Besides, if anything was up, her three dogs would pick up on it. The sun was getting ready to set and they were approaching the border of Fire.

Izumo stopped in a clearing, "The trees thin out past here, it's a little early, but we made good time, this might be the best place to camp."

Hana nodded, "Sounds good." She started to gather up kindling for a fire as Izumo secured the campsite and set up some barriers around the clearing. He then walked over to where she was setting up the kindling and sliced his finger before making a seal around the fire pit. Hana hadn't seen that before so she asked, "What's that for?"

"It'll keep the fire from smoking. We're still in Fire country, but I don't want to be spotted, but it's going to get cold tonight so I want a nice fire." He smiled at her, "And I don't have three warm fur covered bodies to keep me warm."

She smirked, "Yeah, guess the last minute team change ruined that for you." She's been traveling with him all day, and Inuzuka were not known for tact, even is she was one of the more tactful of her clan.

He tried to hide a wince, "Yeah umm well yeah." He shrugged than kind of half-heartedly laughed as he lit the fire.

Hana blinked, "Umm, I mean. Rumor has it that you and Kotetsu are…." She glanced at her dogs as if they would help with something as decidedly human as being uncomfortable talking about mates.

Izumo tried to smile, but it came off a little weak, "Yeah, we were."

Suddenly Hana understood, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"No, it's OK. No big deal, we're still friends and all, just not friends with privileges any more." He did a slightly better attempt at smiling as he got the fire going well, "It was only temporary from the start."

Hana nodded, it wasn't her place to question. She felt awkward in the silence that descended over them, if it were one of her own clan, she would simply tackle him and get into a wrestling match, unfortunately people outside her clan didn't tend to see that behavior as acceptable.

"I bet the dogs and I could scrounge up something better than ration bars to eat…"

He smiled at her and it wasn't a forced smile either, "That'd be great, I think I've eaten more meals of ration bars this year and actual food."

She nodded as she stood up, gathering up two of the three of her pack, telling the third to stay at the camp and guard. She hadn't realized even the desk ninja were being used for so many missions lately, but then again they were really short staffed in the village.

She trotted off with the two dogs in search of some simple game. Rabbit hunting was easy for the three of them and she was sure she could be back in an hour or less with enough rabbits for a nice meal for all five of them

She was right; except it didn't even take an hour before she had five rabbits pierced with kunai and was returning to the camp. As she approached, she heard talking. Slowing down, she approached carefully.

"You know, you're lucky. It would be great to be a dog. I meant look at how good you have it. Pretty girl to take care of you. No silly rumor mill to keep track of. None of this stupid, oh you have to do this or that for your clan even though they're all idiots. I mean, sure, I bet us humans don't have to worry as much about our fur getting matted or fleas or anything. Well, then again there was one time." Izumo laughed, "That's actually one that is better not talked about. The time Izumo got attacked by bed bugs when he was staying at some shithole is not something the rumor mill needs."

As Hana got closer, she could see the man sitting next to her third dog, scratching him behind the ear and talking to him, "I know I know, why won't this stupid human shut up so you can just enjoy being scratched right? Well I promise you some nice treats for listening and not trying to fix things."

Hana decided this was a good time to make some noise as she approached, as expected Izumo shit up and looked towards the noise. She called out, "We're back." And walked into the clearing holding the rabbit carcasses.

"Welcome back. Was just having a little talk with a teammate and all." Izumo smiled and stood up to take the rabbits from her, "You caught them, least I can do is cook."

She laughed and handed over the rabbits, "Sure thing, but it looks like someone is missing the attention."

Sure enough, the grey dog that had been left to guard camp was looking positively dejected from the rubbing coming to an end, until his other two brothers walked over and started wrestling him. She laughed again, "Oh guys, it is not the end of the world your brother has someone else's scent on him, I'm not jealous and you guys shouldn't be either."

Izumo smirked as he cleaned the rabbits and stuck them on stakes. In the meantime, Hana started setting up her tent. "They eat meat cooked or raw?" Izumo called out as he set two of the rabbits over the fire.

"Rare. They'll take them raw but it's better if they're cooked a bit." She was momentarily surprised he bothered to ask. Actually if her dogs were treated with this much thought on her other missions, she probably wouldn't have as much of a reputation for being grouchy.

She watched as he put the other three rabbits over the fire. Soon they were all eating, the dogs drinking from the collapsible bowls she always had with her. Night had fallen while the rabbits were cooking and now stars could be seen. It was going to be a dark night; the new moon had only been a few days ago. Hana sighed looking up at the moon; the night of the full moon was when her clan meeting was. Part of her knew she was twenty now and it was more than time for her family to start looking towards matching her up with someone. She just didn't want it to be some stupid cousin of hers. All her cousins were so … so like her brother. Loud and brash and … well so Inuzuka.

Not that she didn't like her clan and how everyone was, just she liked her quiet sometimes. She liked being alone with just her dogs sometimes. Her mom sometimes blamed it on her having the triplets. Some theory about since her and her dogs were a pack in and of themselves that she felt less need to have a pack. Maybe it made sense. She sometimes felt like she was an outsider when it came to interacting with the rest of the clan. She knew exactly where she stood with her dogs. With the clan, it was always so confusing. Her mom was so dominant and she knew her and her brother were both expected to have leadership qualities.

"I don't seem to be the only one being troubled?" Izumo's voice jolted her from her thinking.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." She sighed and looked at her dogs. They had finished their food and were now lounging around the camp site.

"Love life or something else?" He smiled as he asked the question.

She smirked, "Lack of love life would probably most accurate." She started to clean up the remains of her dog's meals, burying the bones in the dirt, "Or should I say my clan's interest in my lack of a love life."

He snorted trying not to laugh, "Hope they don't meet up with my grandmother. I believe she is the village expert on how to drive your relatives crazy by trying to set them up."

She shook her head, "I don't think my mother needs much advice on the matter. I woke up to find folders on all my eligible cousins that were detailed enough to make Ibiki jealous." She couldn't not smile at her little joke.

"Is she equipping them with bento boxes and shoving them at you on your lunch breaks yet?"

"You're joking?"

"Oh, I wish I was. It's like a never ending parade of cute girls with no brains carrying badly made bento."

She couldn't help laughing, "I'm sorry to laugh, but that is just so funny."

He was laughing himself, then in a really bad imitation of an old woman he said "Izumo-chan, What is the Kamizuki clan to do with you. Stop picking through your bento, how can I die in peace knowing you are alone." He laughed some more, "Like she'd curl up and die when her favorite thing in the world is torturing me."

Hana couldn't remember having this much fun on a mission, "Well at least she isn't giving you measurements of all your eligible relatives … and I mean measurements."

Izumo tried not to laugh, he really did, but that was too much and he was flat on his back laughing. "Don't tell my grandmother that or she might start 'improving' the information on the dates she sets me up on."

Hana giggled, absently rubbing the fur of one of her dogs, "Are they really that bad?"

Izumo raised an eyebrow and started batting his eyes and forcing his face into a completely blank look before speaking in a high pitched ditzy voice, "Oh, like wow, you're really a ninja and all. So like, isn't that like dangerous or something?" He sighed and threw himself back on his back, landing close to the god he had befriended earlier, In his normal voice, "I mean like we live in a secrete village? Where does she find these girls?"

Hana smiled as she finished cleaning up, "Sometimes family is really annoying."

He just nodded, stroking the belly of the dog he had befriended earlier, "Yeah, but I guess they're still worth it. You should get some rest; I want to get an early start." He looked up at the moon as he lay there by the fire.

She nodded, "The dogs can watch. You don't have to stay up."

He looked over at her, "It's OK. This close to a new moon I can't sleep really anyways. Let them get some rest too."

"You can't sleep?"

"Well I can doze and stuff, but we don't normally spend a lot of time sleeping around the new moon."

She tilted her head, "A clan thing?"

He just nodded, "Yeah, can't sleep at all the night of a new moon."

She gestured for her dogs to follow her, "OK, just wake me up if you think you can get some sleep." With that, she crawled into her tent and snuggled into a pile of warm grey fur. This was probably one of the nicest missions she had been on with another person. At some point in the night, she realized one of her dogs got up and left the tent. Since it was the one Izumo had befriended earlier, she assumed he was just wandering off to check on the man and she went right back to sleep.

_----------- Notes ----------_

_Comments welcome. I know this is not a common pairing, or even common characters, but I think it works. The story is done, I will be posting a chapter every day or so until complete._


	2. Chapter 2

_Summary – Hana X Izumo, references to past tense Kotetsu X Izumo. Nothing explicit. The mission where a deceit was invented and a friendship was made._

_Rating – T although it probably doesn't even need that high of a rating._

_Hana finds herself on a mission with Izumo. She hates how people outside her clan treat her and her dogs, why should this one be any different._

_Who are these characters? Izumo is one of the chuunin proctors and also one of the chuunin assigned to help the 5th. He is one of the two that tried to trick everyone into thinking room 201 was room 301 before the beginning of the chuunin exam. Hana is Kiba's older sister. She has 3 dogs who do not have canon names as far as I know. She is a vet but since she is an Inuzuka it is reasonable to assume she is capable of missions as well._

Key to dialog:

"blah blah blah" is speaking

_'blah blah blah'_ is Inuzuka/dog speak

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A dog under a divine moon – chapter 2

She woke up hours later when it was still dark to someone calling her name. She stretched out from under the pile of warm dog fur she was in and crawled out of her tent.

"I want to get an early start. We'll leave as soon as you're ready." Izumo was walking around the campsite putting out the fire and getting his stuff ready to go. Hana just nodded and started getting her pack put back together as the two dogs she had been sleeping with stretched and wrestled a bit with each other. As she was getting everything back in her backpack, she noticed the third dog was following Izumo around. That was strange, normally the three were inseparable.

Hana shrugged it off and indicated she was ready, without another word they were making their way towards rock country at the same quick pace as yesterday. Izumo was still taking point, but this time her third dog was between her and Izumo with the other two behind her. She made the decision she'd have to ask her dogs about what was going on. They stopped for a quick break for lunch, but the friendly talkative Izumo of last night didn't seem to be making a reappearance. Her one dog was sticking to his leg with a surprising amount of determination. Finally, with the lure of jerky she got the dog to leave Izumo and come over to her.

Rubbing his head as she pulled off pieces of jerky for him she asked, '_What's up?_'

He gnawed at the jerky, giving his best doggie sigh as his eyes looked up at her, '_I don't understand humans.'_

She kept scratching his ear, '_We aren't that hard to figure out_.'

He stretched out his paws, '_Yes you are_.'

Hana realized Izumo was looking over at her and frowning. She looked over at him, "Is something wrong?"

"I forgot you could actually understand your dogs and all."

She tilted her head, "Is that a problem?"

He shrugged, "Guess it depends on the topic."

"Oh" She looked down for a second, "I was just wondering what was up since Ichi here was being so protective of you."

He nodded, "Well I guess at least my dramatic breakup should provide good conversation." He couldn't keep the dejected sound out of his voice.

"Actually, Ichi wasn't going to tell me anything beyond humans are hard to understand." She took a piece of jerky for herself, "If you want to talk about it, but if not that's OK too."

He looked over at the dog and smiled, "Sorry Ichi, I should have trusted you more."

Hana was surprised as Ichi got up, walked over to Izumo, and put his head down on the man's leg. Izumo didn't seem surprised and just started rubbing the big grey head.

"He doesn't normally like other people." She was keeping an eye on the two as she tossed jerky to her other two dogs.

Izumo shrugged, "Maybe he just has a weakness for sentimental fools." He sighed, "We need to get moving. We need to get into town soon if I plan on making my meeting." With that, he stood up and quickly got his pack back on. Hana assumed he didn't want to talk any more as he took off, not really waiting to make sure her and the other two dogs were ready.

They reached the town in Rock country not long after sunset. Izumo grabbed a room at an inn while Hana waited with the dogs, then he snuck them all in through a window. Once everyone was in the room, he sat down on a chair and put his head in his hands.

"Izumo-san?"

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"What's the plan?"

He sighed, "Umm, yeah. Kotetsu had this part planned out." He took a deep breath, "I'm sorry. I need to pull it together. OK, the original plan was for Kotetsu and I to go to the club where the meeting place is and meet out source, but we'll just improvise, right? I guess this gives us two options. Either we do everything the same but I go into the club alone, or we leave our best source of backup if things get wrong and the two of us go and meet our source." He absently scratched at the top of Ichi's head.

Hana surprised herself by not bristling at the thought of her dogs being left in the room. This wasn't like other times when people had suggested that, this time she knew they were honestly being considered in Izumo's plan. She took a deep breath, "Don't take this wrong, but I don't think you should be doing it alone."

He tried to smile, "You're probably right. This part should go fine without major backup, sides I'm sure you can more than handle yourself in a fight. We'll have to go in unarmed."

The next half hour passed quickly as they both got ready to go and meet the information source. He nit picked her outfit though, finally giving her one of his T-shirts to wear instead of any of the clothes she brought with her. She wasn't usually on undercover missions, and when she packed for this one, the possibility of being undercover was very remote. Finally she was wearing jeans and a black T shirt that Izumo ripped the collar of and the sleeves of to make it more of a tank and then tied it at the waist to bring it in a bit. He was just wearing a dark blue T-shirt and jeans. When he grabbed a bag of makeup out of his backpack, she did give him an odd look.

He just smiled, "Hey, don't look at me weird. Do you know how many times I've covered up the red on Kotetsu …" His smile dropped as he obviously thought of Kotetsu. Hana had forgotten about the red Tattoos on his face, several clans marked their members, but Kotetsu always had his covered in the village so it hadn't occurred to her. She remained quiet as Izumo covered up the fang shaped tattoos on her face and did her makeup. He smiled at her when he was done, "There, that wasn't that bad now was it."

She glanced at herself in the mirror. With her mouth closed, she almost looked like she didn't even belong to the Inuzuka. It was odd, "I look so different. I've never done an undercover mission."

He smiled, "Don't worry. You're with an expert. I don't think you look that different though."

"Expert?"

He shrugged, "I don't go on a lot of normal missions. I don't have the fighting ability you do. Let's head out." With that, he took her hand and led her out of the room.

The club was very loud when they got there, and she just hung onto his arm and remained quiet. She saw enough other women doing the same thing that she didn't think it was too odd. She just didn't think they were doing it for the same reason she was. Occasionally he would pat her hand in a reassuring manner as he walked around the club, stopping at the bar to get them both a bottle of beer before finally settling at a table at the far side of the room.

He leaned over to whisper into her ear, "Our source isn't here yet, so just relax." When she looked up at him, he gave her a reassuring smile and whispered, "You're doing good."

He was scanning the room so she decided to do the same thing. She was very grateful for the reassuring hand on her arm though. If this were a battle, she would be completely confident. A tracking mission would be no problem, but this was not something she was good at. Heck, she wasn't good at going out for drinks and fun with the chuunin she knew back in Konoha. She wasn't even good at doing family gatherings with the other Inuzuka about her age.

She saw a man walking towards their table, and Izumo waved towards him. The man sat down in one of the empty chairs and took an appraising look at Hana. Izumo just grunted and pulled Hana a little closer to him. The other man's glance narrowed at the protective gesture.

Izumo pulled an envelope out of his pocket before quietly saying, "You have what we discussed?"

The other man nodded, "Maybe I want more than what you're offering though." His glance had once again traveled over to Hana, "She may not be your cute friend, but she isn't half bad."

Izumo's voice was firm, "No deal. She is not on the table."

The other man rolled his eyes, "Whatever. You're too boring. I risked a lot to get this information, shouldn't I expect something nice in return."

Izumo sighed, "Double the money, you can buy yourself someone with the extra."

The other man smirked, "Oh I see. This one is your girlfriend."

Izumo growled low in his throat, it seemed almost like a noise one of her dogs would make, "Look, do you want the money or not. She is not on the table."

Finally, the man pulled out an envelope and set it on the table. Izumo handed over a thicker envelope and then checked the contents of the envelope he received as his actions were mirrored on the other side of the table.

Izumo stood and grabbed Hana's arm, "We're done." With that, he led her towards the door with a very determined look on his face. He was growling low in his throat as the approached the inn; he was making frequent glances and taking a very circular path there to make sure that they weren't followed.

Hesitantly she spoke up, "I don't smell anyone following us." She wasn't sure what had made him so upset, but as far as she could tell, the meeting had gone as expected.

He didn't say anything until they got back to the room and the door was securely locked. The three dogs made sure Hana was fine by sniffing all the strange scents on her before looking over at the agitated man. Ichi walked over to him and butted his head against his leg.

"I am sorry, Hana-san." He was biting his lip. "I shouldn't have brought you with me."

Ichi was whining pitifully as he kept butting his head into Izumo's leg. Izumo sat down and started to pet Ichi absently. He opened up the envelope and scanned its contents again. "We'll be heading out in the morning. We have the location of a missing-nin from leaf. We are only to verify and then send word to leaf. If he isn't there, we leave for home. If he is there, we wait for an ANBU squad and monitor." He sighed again, "I'm sorry. I thought I was OK to go on a mission."

"Izumo, it's all right. Nothing bad has happened." She walked over to him, not bothering to hide the concern on her face.

"This is so fucking pathetic of me." When she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him, he collapsed into her. She sat there with him, murmuring something about it being all right and they didn't have to go to work until morning. The other two grey dogs came over and contributed their fur and warmth to the pile on the carpet of the hotel room.

Softly she asked, "Do you think it'll help if you talk about it?"

He sighed, "I don't think anything will ever help." He was absently stroking Ichi's fur.

"The breakup is worse than you were letting on?"

Izumo looked down at Ichi's brown dog eyes looking back up at him, not looking Hana in the face, instead looking at Ichi. "I probably shouldn't be saying half of this, but I need to or else I think I'm going to fuck up on this mission. I do a lot of undercover work. A lot of undercover work, as in … well .. undercover." He gestured with his head towards the bed to make sure she understood his meaning.

Hana was trying to remind herself that most humans put a lot more stock in sex than the Inuzuka did. She just rubbed his back a bit in a motion similar to the way he was petting Ichi. He took a deep breath and continued, "I think it put a lot of stress on things between Kotetsu and me, but maybe I was just thinking there was more there than there was. I started getting jealous, he started arguing, and it just got worse and worse. Then a year ago he told me to get over it and we should start seeing other people." He paused and looked up at the ceiling, "He did, I didn't. He went and told my grandmother to set me up. I was stupid and thought that he actually loved me, like forever and ever loved. Guess I should have known better. Last week I came home from a solo mission early. When I got back to our apartment, he wasn't alone. Guess it took that to get it through my thick skull that it was really actually over."

"You should have told someone, have some time to figure things out before going on a mission." He voice was soft, she wasn't used to seeing a fellow shinobi this emotionally honest.

He shrugged, "I report to Ibiki, he said this one needed to be done. He was nice enough to take Kotetsu off the mission, sorry about lying earlier."

She nodded, "I'm glad he didn't send you out alone."

He smiled and looked over at her, "Ibiki said it was a good thing he was sending an Inuzuka with me, according to him, members of your clan never show any interest in their teammates anyways so I could do my usual Kamizuki thing and just keep quiet."

She smiled back at him, "That's cause normally our teammates don't pay any attention to our dogs and just dismiss us as the strange looking dog clan."

"You're beautiful." His eyes widened as he realized what he said.

She smiled, "Thank you." She glanced down at Ichi who was nearly asleep with his head on Izumo's leg, "You're very nice. Are you feeling less bad?"

He nodded, "Yeah, a little. I think admitting it helps." He sighed, "You want the bathroom first, we'll need to head out early."

She nodded and disentangled herself from the dog pile, "Take care of the boys for me." She padded off to the bathroom with her pack. She was very quick, the longest thing was washing off the makeup Izumo had put on her. She walked out about fifteen minutes later to see Izumo play wrestling with the three dogs. As she opened the door, it appeared the dogs had won and were covering him in celebratory slobber.

She giggled a little, "Well, you could certainly fit in around my house. If you want a water bath instead of one from those guys, I'm done."

He looked up at her, his cheeks slightly red, "Yeah, Umm … yeah." With that he grabbed his pack and walked into the bathroom.

She sat down on the bed and was soon covered in dogs. "Well you guys, you all seem to like him."

Ichi snuggled into her side, '_He's nice for an outsider.'_

She nodded, "He is nice."

Ichi rolled onto his back, _'You should have more friends. Your mom is right that you keep to yourself too much.'_

She growled softly at him '_I keep to us, not to myself.'_

Ichi looked up at her with his brown eyes, obviously not even bothering to reply. She crawled under the blankets of the bed as the three dogs piled in with her. It was a big bed but three large dogs and a girl tended to fill it up. She looked at her pack, "I think Izumo might be planning on having a portion of the mattress."

One of the other ones yawned, _'We fought him and won, we get the bed.'_

She shook her head, "Somehow I doubt he'll see it that way."

She had just gotten comfortable when the bathroom door opened up and Izumo walked in wearing shorts and a T-shirt. He looked over at her as he turned on a small lamp on a table, "You should get to bed, all four of you. It's going to be a long day tomorrow." He turned back to the table and started to go over maps.

She lay there for a few minutes in the dark before asking, "Aren't you going to rest?"

"No." He just flipped through some maps before deciding to elaborate, "I need to come up with a plan by morning."

She sighed and rolled onto her side and tried to fall asleep. She must have succeeded because it seemed to be some time later that she realized the room got darker and the bed got lighter as Ichi hopped off. Figuring the dog was just going to check up on his new favorite non-Inuzuka she went back to sleep.

_--------------- Notes ----------------_

_OK I changed my mind and am just posting this whole thing today, assuming I get part 3 of 3 grammar and spell checked and edited today._

_Comments would be loved; this story isn't about anyone popular so I know it won't get many reads :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_Summary – Hana X Izumo, references to past tense Kotetsu X Izumo. Nothing explicit. The mission where a deceit was invented and a friendship was made. _

_Rating – T although it probably doesn't even need that high of a rating._

_Hana finds herself on a mission with Izumo. She hates how people outside her clan treat her and her dogs, why should this one be any different._

_Who are these characters? Izumo is one of the chuunin proctors and also one of the chuunin assigned to help the 5th. He is one of the two that tried to trick everyone into thinking room 201 was room 301 before the beginning of the chuunin exam. Hana is Kiba's older sister. She has 3 dogs who do not have canon names as far as I know. She is a vet but since she is an Inuzuka it is reasonable to assume she is capable of missions as well._

Key to dialog:

"blah blah blah" is speaking

'_blah blah blah'_ is Inuzuka/dog speak

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A dog under a divine moon – chapter 3/3

She woke up well rested several hours before dawn. The two dogs with her were still sleeping. She looked around to see where Izumo was and found him curled up on a rub with his arms around Ichi. His face was buried into the dog's fur and his fingers were entwined in long grey fur. Both appeared to be sound asleep. She watched him for a while. He slept like her relatives. She had never seen anyone not of her clan sleep like that. She momentarily found herself thinking about how it was too bad he didn't like girls, he was a lot less annoying than any of her cousins.

She stayed like that for a while, until she started to notice him moving a bit as he woke up, "Izumo-kun, you up?" She asked as he opened his eyes.

"Yeah, I think I managed to get some sleep even." He slowly unwound his fingers from Ichi's fur, rubbing him as he sat up. "Thanks guy."

"I've never seen anyone outside my family sleep like that." She smiled at him as she crawled out of bed.

"My clan …" He paused as if he didn't mean to say that.

"Your clan?" She honestly didn't know anything about Izumo's clan. She knew his family name and that evidently, he had a grandmother, but that was all.

"I'm the last one."

"What about your grandmother?" She tilted her head as she pulled on her uniform.

"She married in. My grandfather and my father were blood. My uncle too. I'm the only one left. I don't know a lot, my father and his brother died when I was young, but they used wolves."

She stopped at that and looked at him. "Wolves?"

He nodded, "Evidently." He smiled at her, "It's a lost art now." He shrugged and started packing things into his pack, "I've always liked dogs though." He put his shoes on. She snuck out the window with the dogs and met him behind the hotel. He didn't say anything as they made their way out of town.

It was only a few hours to reach a deserted cabin in the woods. They approached carefully covering their chakra and used binoculars to keep as far away as possible. The target was sighted and the dogs confirmed that only the target was there. Hana stayed and watched as Izumo pulled a scroll out of his pocket and rubbed a blood soaked fingertip across it. A single raven appeared and Izumo tied a message to its leg before sending it off.

"All that is left is waiting." He sat in a tree branch, keeping the cabin under observation. Hana stayed with the dogs at ground level. They didn't want to risk a fire so they lived off ration bars. Hana assumed it would be at least the next day before the ANBU squad could reach them. Come nightfall she didn't bother to ask Izumo if he was tired, he was obviously not moving from his tree branch. She curled up and slept with the three dogs, just waiting. She hated waiting.

The next day passed much the same, it was noon before she decided to climb up the tree and see if Izumo wanted company. She ended up just leaning against his arm as they watched the cabin, his hand touching her hair eventually in the same way it had touch Ichi's fur earlier.

The sun was setting as he suddenly sat up straighter, "They're here." He jumped down to the forest floor. Four ANBU masks were suddenly there as well and Hana jumped down to land next to Izumo. With a few words from Izumo the ANBU were off.

Soon the sounds of battle could be heard and Izumo started to walk towards the cabin. By the time the two got there by walking slowly, the ANBU had a body on the ground and were setting the spells in place to destroy it. Izumo watched for a moment, then turned around, "Come on, they'll beat us back but there is no reason to delay leaving. I want to be as far away from here before we camp as possible,"

They traveled until midnight, trying to get as close to fire country as possible, but they were still hours from the border when they stopped at a cliff face. There was a small cave, more like a depression in the rock wall and the clouds were looking like rain. Pressing themselves as far into the depression as they could, he pulled his blanket out of his pack and pushed it against the back of the 'cave'. "If we huddle we should stay dry and warm."

True enough, it was crowded, and the cave smelt of sweaty dog within seconds, but all five of them fit. Hana was sure most other people would have made some fuss about the dogs being able to handle the light rain, but she was glad she didn't have to argue with him about it. They both shared what food they had with the dogs and eventually they had three snoozing piles of grey fur sleeping over their legs as they leaned against Izumo's blanket.

He had his arms around her since there was really no other way to fit into the small cave. She leaned into him and sighed, "Thank you."

"Hmmm?" He shifted a little bit, "For what?"

"For being nice to my dogs. Most people aren't." She honestly meant it.

"Well, most people are stupid then." He sounded like he meant it.

"Izumo?" She tried to tilt her head to look up at him, "Why did you get so mad after we met the guy for the information?"

He half laughed under his breath, "Because you aren't that type of girl."

"Type?"

"The type that would have sex with him."

She twisted around to look up at him, "That's what he wanted? But I thought he was upset Kotetsu wasn't there?"

He smiled softly at her, "I suppose I should tell you, shouldn't I." He paused for a few moments, "You know how some of the mission kunoichi are sent on involve seduction?" When she nodded, he continued. "Now that's considered all well and good for Kunoichi, a necessary part of the job even, but there are some of us that work for intelligence that take many of the same types of missions. Wreaks hell on any type of relationship, that's probably whet kept Ko and I together as long as we were. We worked together a lot and knew how it was so we didn't let work influence not work."

He sighed and rested his chin on her head, "I understand if you dislike me after finding this out."

"Why would I dislike you for doing your job?"

He made a confused noise, "Umm, because everyone else I've ever dated has dumped me the second they knew."

"Somehow I doubt I'm like many other people you've dated." Suddenly she laughed, "Not that I'm dating you."

"Well yeah." He laughed a little, "That was sounding like we were, wasn't it." He cleared his throat, "Not that that would be bad I mean."

She nodded, "Yeah, I mean if I was more your type and all and the whole rebound thing."

He tried to move to look at her, "What do you mean 'my type'?" Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room without disturbing the dogs so he only was able to half face her.

She blushed, almost as red as the tattoos on her cheeks. Damn it! She was Inuzuka, they don't blush. She took a breath and just blurted it out, "I'm a girl."

He laughed, "I think I noticed that." His voice took on a serious tone, "Maybe that's half my problem with my grandmother, everyone assumes I only like guys?"

She twisted to be facing him, she only disturbed one of the sleeping dogs as she moved her legs, "You don't? I mean you and …"

He shook his head, "I like people for who they are, not what."

She nodded, "I understand. Maybe we can help each other out." When he gave her an inquisitive look, "If you appear to be dating someone, your grandmother will back off, right?" He nodded. "And if I appear to be dating someone, my mother will back off."

His face broke out in a wide smile, "You want to deceive our families." When she dropped her eyes and looked down, he hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her head to look into his eyes, "Hey, if they didn't force us into this position, we wouldn't have to, right? So there is nothing wrong with deceiving them a little bit. The question is, do you think you can do it?"

She nodded, "I don't mind spending time with you, you're a nice guy. Ichi says I need to make more friends, so it would at least give me a chance to get to know you better." She giggled a bit, "Besides, he's grown attached to you."

He smiled, "Then I think it would be a great idea to help each other out. Can you make it believable?"

She looked into his eyes, "Can you?"

His hand turned around so that he was holding her jaw in his palm and leaned forward his lips parting as he approached her. Softly he kissed her, running his slightly chapped lips across hers in the lightest of whispers. When she gasped and opened her mouth slightly, he pressed his lips against hers, his tongue lightly tracing the top of her bottom lip. Her eyes were wide open as he backed his head away from hers, his eyes half-lidded, "Can you?"

She swallowed and leaned into him. Her kiss was not as skilled, but her lip's were warm and he responded by dropping his other hand to her back to hold her. When she ended the kiss with a bit to his lower lip, he laughed.

She leaned into his chest and sighed, "I think we can both manage this."

He made an affirmative noise and started to stroke her hair in that same manner he petted Ichi. He held her against him until she fell asleep.

Come morning, they were on their way again, traveling as fast as they could. It would be a tough day's travel, but if they pushed themselves, they should make it to Konoha by midnight. On the way, they made plans to have dinner the following night. They were exhausted when they got to Konoha and the mission desk was closed. Hana and Izumo walked through the gate together and since his place was on the way to the Inuzuka compound, she was walking home with him as they talked about dinner the following night.

When they reached the door to his apartment building, he turned to her, "Want some tea or something? I know I'm exhausted and it's still a ways to your place."

She nodded and followed him to his first floor apartment followed by three exhausted dogs. He unlocked the door and opened it. Instantly he stopped and went pale. Hana saw enough over his shoulder to realize the apartment had clothes scattered over it and the remains of what was probably a romantic dinner. She definitely could smell what was going on in there, and she was sure Izumo could hear what was going on as well. He closed the door and re-locked it.

He stood there for a few minutes looking at the door. She took his arm and led him away, "It's OK." She tried to think of whom his friends were that he could show up at midnight on their doorstep and she couldn't think of anyone.

"Is there someplace you can stay tonight? I mean we're home early so …" She took a deep breath. Ichi was pressed up against his leg, whining, '_We should take him back with us._' She shushed her dog with a quick bark, '_Lets see what he wants.'_

He nodded, "Yeah, Iruka has a spare bedroom. He and Kakashi might still be up."

She shook her head, "Tomorrow is a school day. I'm sure they're asleep. Come with me, you can have a couch."

She walked with him towards the Inuzaku compound, holding his arm as they walked through the almost deserted streets. About twenty minutes later, they reached the gates to the Inuzuka compound and walked through. The dogs lounging around outside only looked up to see the strange scent was accompanied by four known scents and went back to resting. She led him to her families house, and nudged open the unlocked door. No one bothered to lock a door here. "Why don't you grab a shower while I get the dogs settled?" When he just nodded, she shoved him off into the bathroom and went and took care of the dogs.

After getting them fed and watered, she sat down next to Ichi, "You really like him, don't you?"

Ichi yipped, '_He's a nice person. He likes you; he's just really hurt right now._' He lapped at his water, '_I have no idea why you humans make mating so difficult._'

Hana looked up as her mother walked into the room, "You're back early. Why is Ichi talking about humans and mating and why is there someone in the bathroom?"

Hana looked up at her mother, "Umm, I offered Izumo the couch for the night."

"Izumo?"

"Kamizuka Izumo, chuunin. He was on the mission with me. His roommate was umm … entertaining someone when we got back, early and all, so Ichi said he should stay here for the night."

Tsume raised an eyebrow at that, "Ichi said he should stay here for the night?" She looked at the dog in question as if questioning him.

He made a gruff sound, '_I did not say that._' When Tsume turned to Hana to see what she had to say, he continued, '_I said we should take him back with us, I never said anything about just for the night.'_

Tsume turned and looked at the dog and Hana's eyes became wide. Tsume turned and looked at her daughter. "Ichi likes him?"

Hana just nodded.

Tsume frowned, "Guess that means I need to meet the outsider."

As if on cue, a slightly wet Izumo walked out of the bathroom wearing shorts and a T-shirt, "That feels better, roughing it would be so much better with hot running water." He blinked when he saw Hana's mother standing there, "Oh, umm, good evening, Inuzuka-san"

"My daughter invited you to spend the night?"

Izumo didn't look nervous, but then again he was a ninja, "She graciously offered to let me sleep on the couch, assuming Ichi doesn't kick me to the floor again."

Ichi for his part muttered something about it not being his fault the human snored. Suddenly Hana and her mother were laughing and Izumo looked really confused.

Hana felt the need to explain when she saw the confused look on Izumo's face, "Ichi just accused you of snoring."

He blinked, "Like he can talk, my arm was wet in the morning. That dog drools worse than anyone I know."

Ichi backed, 'I do not drool.'

Izumo looked at the dog, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you're denying it. You drool like crazy, don't make me take photos."

Ichi stretched and yawned. 'Too bad dogs don't have opposable thumbs to use a camera with, I am sure Hana's dam would love to have seen what you were doing to her daughter in that cave.'

Hana's eye's went wide and Izumo looked at Hana, his look showing he had no idea what was wrong. Tsume for her part turned to Ichi, "What did he do to my daughter?"

Ichi remained silent and instead of answering, became very intent on scratching behind his ear.

One of Hana's other dogs rolled over onto his back, _'Stop making trouble, they were just kissing and you know it.'_

Izumo was looking at Hana almost begging her to tell him what was going on as Tsume turned to look at him. "You kissed my daughter?"

A less brave man when faced by the fierce Inuzuka clan leader would have fled. Izumo managed to stand his ground, how much of it was because she was between him and the exit can't really be said. He went with his only option and nodded, "Yes."

Suddenly Tsume lunged at him and he quickly found himself pinned to the floor. On instinct more than anything else, he tried to wrestle himself out from under her as Hana watched. While he put up a good fight, he found himself trapped on the floor. Struggling wasn't going to help, so he stopped.

As soon as he stopped, Tsume got off him and looked over at Hana, "You need to teach him or he's going to get pounded at the clan meeting."

Hana blinked, "At the clan meeting?"

Tsume walked back off towards the area where the bedrooms were in the house, "You do intend on introducing your boyfriend to the clan, don't you?" Her tone didn't make it sound optional.

Hana and Izumo stood there for a few moments as Tsume left. Finally, Hana pulled herself from her daze and walked over to him, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "I think she likes you."

She turned and walked off to her room before she started laughing at the stunned look on his face. This was going to be an interesting charade, but she was thinking of it as less and less of a charade. When she curled up into bed with her three dogs, Ichi licked her face, _'I think you should keep him around_.'

She smiled at her dog, "I think you're right. Goodnight."

As she fell asleep she heard Ichi muttering, _'Poor human doesn't know what he got himself into.'_

The end

----- Notes -------

_It had to be written, I think they're cute together. I might at some point continue it but I like how it is._


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